Delicious food served with a warm welcome will be on the menu for a group battling isolation at a new community bistro. 

In Middlesbrough, a community bistro has opened in the former Swedish church at the historic Scandinavian House, offering food on a ‘pay as you wish’ system.

To attend the group, head into Scandinavian House on Middlesbrough's Linthorpe Road on a Wednesday or Saturday, between 11 am and 2 pm and enjoy some food. If you can afford it, then pay what you think the meal and service are worth.

The idea is the brainchild of Bernadette Myers and Rachel Stark, the Middlesbrough women behind the Young@Heart Community Interest Company (CIC).

Read more: The Stag Inn in Stockton reopens after £100k makeover

Set up in 2021, Young@Heart started life as a project to combat loneliness and isolation with a £500 grant from Middlesbrough Council, targeted at people aged over 60. 

A book club, community pantry and a host of workshops and trips followed. Bernadette, a life coach, and Rachel, a family worker, later moved into the Park Road South venue.

Called Värma Høuse, the premises will serve as the CIC’s offices during the week and features a well-known modernist concrete and stained-glass window, designed in Sweden and installed in 1962, which is one of the rarest and best examples of the style in Europe.

“We just wanted to follow our own path and create what we wanted to,” said Bernadette.

“We have been working from pop-ups and have welcomed people who live at Levick Court and Wimbledon Court in Linthorpe. We’ve now managed to access funding to move into our own premises.

Get the latest news, sports, and entertainment delivered straight to your device by subscribing to The Northern Echo here. 

“The bistro will be for everyone – we want it to be a community asset, it’s important for us to see people coming in, making friends and having a chat.”

The project is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and uses surplus food donated by Marks and Spencer at Teesside Park for its menu.

There’s also a surplus store – with a selection of M&S food free for visitors to take away.

Rachel said: “We’ve already built a great community and we think the bistro will continue that.

“We both wanted to work on something that allowed us to go in our own direction and especially after Covid we knew that people needed somewhere to get together.

“We want it to be completely sustainable, and we really do welcome anybody to come in and have a meal and a drink and choose what you’d like to pay. Nobody is excluded.”

Read next: 

Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cooke attended an informal opening of the bistro before it serves its first customers on Saturday, July 29, and was impressed by what he saw.

He said: “Combatting isolation is a vital part of strengthening our communities in Middlesbrough, and it was great to meet Bernadette and Rachel and see what Young at Heart has already achieved.

“I’d encourage anybody to go along, have some food, and support what they’re doing.”